


Home is wherever I'm with you

by hereforthehurts



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Conflict Resolution, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, catradora, post s5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27630707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereforthehurts/pseuds/hereforthehurts
Summary: Catra and Adora revisits the Fright Zone.Things had changed. A lot. And they weren't so sure how to feel about that.OR, basically a fanfiction of what happened if Adora ever finds out about what happened to the drawing of them back in their old Fright Zone room.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 122
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	Home is wherever I'm with you

**Author's Note:**

> For Comfortember day 19: Memory lane

Adora stays in her place, agitated, fingers tapping on her lap restlessly while the skiff maintains its steady pace, hovering above the Fright Zone grounds.  
  
She could see that Catra was uneasy too, through the way her tail moves. It swipes around her legs back and forth, trying to calm herself down. Her eyes looks around warily, as if expecting something to suddenly attack them.  
  
That was ridiculous. Nothing would, right? The war is over—what else is there to attack her? Nothing. Nothing at all. They’re safe, they’re _safe,_ everything’s okay—  
  
A warm hand placed over hers, fingers intertwining. “Hey.” Catra spoke up, squeezing her hand. “You okay?”  
  
Adora tried to give her a small, convincing smile. “I’m okay. You?”  
  
She sighs, then looks around to and wraps her tail around her leg. “I… I don’t know.”  
  
Adora smiles softly. “That’s okay, too.”  
  
“Yeah.” Catra nods, giving her another small smile, then shook her head. “The war’s over. We’re safe. We’re okay.” She wasn’t sure who Catra said it to—maybe to herself, because she needed it. Adora could understand that.  
  
“That’s right,” Adora tells her. “The war’s over. We’re safe. We’re _okay,”_ she squeezes her hand back. “I promise.”  
  
Catra smiles back to her. “Yeah. You’re right.”  
  
It was hard to believe that, as the skiff rides silently still along the Fright Zone—a place that she and Catra grew up in, a place that was once her home.  
  
And, ironically, it was also the place where she was hurt the most.

Adora didn’t know how to feel about that.  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
Dead. It’s all so empty and _dead.  
  
_ Most of the soldiers—no, _kids_ —were replaced into the various rehabilitation facilities in each of the existing kingdoms in Etheria. It was… more like a school, she guesses—a place to recover after being wrongly used as child soldiers in the war. And that leaves the Fright Zone abandoned and empty for the moment as the council of princesses decide what to do with the place next.  
  
The thing is, every one of them seems to be waiting for Catra and Adora’s advice on what to do with it. Because they were the ones who grew up in it, because they were the ones who was emotionally attached to the Fright Zone for so long, even until now.  
  
It was their home. _Was._ Not anymore, now.  
  
She should feel happy about it. This place was _horrible—_ they were trained to fight and die and then punished when they weren’t deemed satisfactory. Sure, she was always the best at everything, but the fear was still there.  
  
And for Catra, unfortunately, she doesn’t think the fear will ever go away.  
  
They’re holding hands now, walking along the cold and silent corridors of the Fright Zone. Some Adora still remembers vaguely, being the place where she and Catra used to play hide and seek in, or where she and Shadow Weaver had their long talks about becoming… becoming what she had _made_ her to be. The memories, it all keeps coming to her, all the good and bad and straight up terrible ones, she was confused. She doesn’t know which one to believe.  
  
“Hey, Cat?” She asks softly, careful not to startle her. The other girl snaps her attention back to her side, seemingly having her own nostalgic adventures in her own head too.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Do you want to split up while we explore th—”  
  
“NO!” Catra exclaims almost immediately, pushing Adora away from her before she could even react. They both stared at each other, both in confusion and surprise, trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
“Catra, wh…?”  
  
“I—” A shaky breath, and the girl slumps to the ground. Adora recognizes the whole thing too well even before it happens, she kneels beside her and reached for her arms before squeezing it tight. “Adora, I—‘m sorry—”  
  
“ _No,_ no no—it’s okay. It’s okay. Look at me.” She cups her cheek and breathes, encouraging her to do the same. “It’s okay. Just breathe.”  
  
Catra nods and follows her, hands shaking as Adora held her tight. “I’m sorry,” she repeated once her breathing stabled. “I didn’t—I was just surprised, I guess. I didn’t mean to yell like that.”  
  
“I know. It’s okay. Just—” Adora squeezed both of her hands gently once again, “Catra, if this isn’t okay for you, you know you can just leave, right? It’s okay.”  
  
Catra thought about it, then shook her head. “Remind me why we’re here again.”  
  
“We… we were supposed to do a survey on the Fright Zone grounds so that we’d at least have an idea on what to turn this place into.” Adora repeated the exact words Glimmer had told her. “But the others can do that, if this is too much. We don’t _need_ to do anything anymore, remember? We’re free.” She tries to give her a small smile, but Catra looked away.  
  
“I… I _can_ do this. I want to do this.” She tells her.  
  
“Catra—”  
  
“I’m _not_ scared, Adora. I’m _not.”_  
  
“I _know_ you’re not. I know. I just wanted you don’t have to force yourself into doing this if you don’t feel like it, okay?”  
  
“Okay.” Catra sighs softly, running her hand along her arm, “I just—I’m going to be honest with you, Adora, I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t miss this place.” She closes her eyes right after she said it, as if she was scared of what Adora would say.  
  
She held her hand. “Hey. I missed this place, too.”  
  
Catra’s eyes opened. “You do?”  
  
“Yeah. I mean, I didn’t—I didn’t know why I do. This place was just, straight up _terrible,_ right?” She says, and Catra laughs with her. “But… I do. And it sucks. But you were right—I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss this place at all.  
  
Catra sighs, as if trying to get rid of the weight in her heart. Maybe she was. “So…”  
  
“So… we figure it out.” Adora held her hands. “Together. Is that okay?”  
  
“Yeah.” She smiles at her, then stood up. “I’d like that.”  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
They ended up in their old room, out of all places.  
  
They went to the mess hall, and their locker room, and the rooftop where they used to hang out. But in the end, their feet brought them back to their room, as if they were programmed to do so. They didn’t even realize it—they just walked along, holding hands, until Adora recognize the place she was seeing in her mind. It hit her so suddenly, her body froze and held Catra’s in place.  
  
“Adora?” Catra frowns, looking back at her. “Hey, what’s wrong?”  
  
“I—” she didn’t know how to say it. “Our old room.”  
  
Catra frowns even deeper, tilting her head, then turned to what Adora was staring at. Her face instantly lit up when she recognizes it. “Oh, yeah! You’re right!”  
  
And then it’s playing again, the memory of Catra laughing and skipping in the corridors of Fright Zone with her, but this time, she was seeing it play in front of her own eyes. The new Catra, the Catra with short hair and a smile on her face, skipping on the same corridor and calling for her to catch up.  
  
It was all so _surreal.  
  
_ Adora watches Catra roam around the room, loud and excited. She’s calling her over every time she sees something familiar, like “The scratch I made when I was four! It’s still here!” or “there’s _no_ way Lonnie left her jacket behind!”— Adora shakes her head and smiles to herself. This was the first time she’s seen her so happy about this place since… forever.  
  
Eventually, she finds herself walking over to her old bed.  
  
It was harder than she remembered. Some scratches here and there, and a light layer of dust when she feels the sheets. It was familiar but _so different_ that she remembered, her mind hurts just thinking about it.  
  


And then she sees it.  
  
The drawing, their old drawing on wall of their bedframe. They drew had it with a piece of chalk Catra found when they were six—she drew Catra’s face, and Catra draw hers. It was the first thing they would see when they woke up and the first thing they would see before they went to bed.  
  
And it’s… _ruined_.  
  
By a claw mark, four scratches over the drawing of the two of them. Adora didn’t want to believe it, she hoped Catra wouldn’t see her stare at the drawing. She didn’t want to hear Catra explain, she didn’t _want_ to know the truth.  
  
“Adora?”  
  
But it was too late.  
  
“Adora, what are you—oh.”  
  
And just like that, the room went quieter than it already were.  
  
She couldn’t take her eyes off the drawing. Her body was frozen, frozen in guilt and shame and _regret_ and—  
  
“Adora. I—I’m sorry.” A hesitant hand places over her shoulder. “It was… it was a long time ago.”  
  
“When?” Adora turns to Catra, hot tears on her eyes. “When did you—”  
  
“When you first left.”  
  
Oh.  
  
Adora lays awake imagining what had happened to Catra when she left her. She imagines Shadow Weaver, hurting her, _tormenting_ her, but this time Catra was _alone._ She wasn’t at her side to protect her, she wasn’t there because she _left_.  
  
The guilt stayed to haunt her, even until now.  
  
If only she _hadn’t—  
  
_ “Adora.” Catra calls. “Adora, _say_ something. I’m sorry.”  
  
“No, no no—hey. I’m not—I’m not mad,” she quickly says, wiping her tears away. “I’m not angry, Catra. I’m just… sad, I guess.”  
  
Tears pools on Catra’s mismatched eyes, and before she realizes it, she was pulling her into a tight hug—mostly because she couldn’t see Catra cry because of her, _not again._  
  
“Hey,” Adora says softly, “it’s okay.”  
  
“It’s not,” the other girl lets out a suppressed sob. “Stop saying that. It’s _not.”_  
  
“Okay,” she agrees. “It’s not okay. But—you’re here, now. And you’re better, you’re trying to, every day, and I can see that. You’re not the same person you were, Catra.”  
  
“It still doesn’t erase what I’ve done.”  
  
“I know that. But, it’s in the past, so—”  
  
“—Why can’t you just be _angry_ for once?” Catra pulls away. “I messed up, I fucking messed up big time, and you deserve to be angry at me—why do you _always_ have to be putting everyone else before you?” She sobs, wiping her tears away from her face angrily. “What do you really feel, Adora?”  
  
“I…” she stares at her, then shook her head. “I was, I guess. Angry.”  
  
Catra stares back.  
  
“I was angry at you, for a long while. I didn’t—I didn’t understand why you were so stubborn, why you didn’t want to come with me even when I asked you to. Do you think—do you think I wanted to be She-ra?” Adora asks her. “I didn’t. I didn’t _want_ to be She-ra, and the first night after they accepted me on Brightmoon, I tried to run away to go back to you.” She sighs. “They didn’t let me.”  
  
Catra held her hand. “It’s not your fault.”  
  
“I shouldn’t have left you.”  
  
“You shouldn’t have,” she agreed. “But it was the right thing to do, right? Adora, always saving the day,” Catra tried to joke. “And honestly, I… I love you for that. Were there days I wished all of this didn’t happen? Yeah, of course there are. Sometimes I just wished you and I were still in this place, training and sharing ration bars and climb up to the roof to hang out at the end of the day. But you and I both know that’s not the right thing. And in the end… I’m still glad that all of this happened.”  
  
Adora leans onto her, resting her head on her shoulder. “You do?”  
  
“Yeah.” Catra sighs, running her fingers along her hair gently. “And… Adora, I have many regrets. A lot of them. But you…?” she shook her head. “You were never one of them. Even when I hated you.”  
  
They stayed like that for a while, rocking together slowly in each other’s arms on their old bed. Maybe Catra was right—a part of her wanted to drown in the familiarity, to sleep in the bed and wake the next morning by the morning bell, to see Catra’s tired but teasing face and the “I heard you snore last night” “no you didn’t you were sleeping like you’re dead” conversation.  
  
But everything’s changed, now, right? They weren’t the kids they were, indoctrinated and forced to believe what wasn’t right. They were adults, now, nineteen and counting, in a much better world than the one they grew up in, changing it as they go.  
  
And for the better, she hopes.  
  
“Hey. Give me your hand,” she suddenly had an idea, pulling away from Catra’s arms and reached for her back pocket. "I have an idea."  
  
“What idea?” Catra asks, frowning. She lets Adora take her hand while the other girl pulls out a pen from her pocket, and she laughs. “Oh my god—why would you have a fucking pen on your pocket?”  
  
“Don’t laugh,” Adora smiles back, rolling her eyes. “I knew I would need it in moments like these.”  
  
“You just never change, do you?”  
  
“About being prepared? I hope not.” She spreads out Catra’s palm and began drawing on it with a pen. “Stay still, okay? Just trust me.”  
  
“What are you _doing—_ okay, this tickles and I don’t like it.”  
  
“Shut up and stay still.”  
  
“Oh my god.” Catra groans. Despite that, she stays still, watching curiously as Adora scribbles carefully on her hand. “Are you done? What are you drawing?”  
  
“Shush.”  
  
Catra did what she was told. She only realizes it when Adora finally pulls away, a satisfied smile on her face. “There! Does it look the same?”  
  
It was a drawing of her face, exactly like the one on their bed frame.  
  
“It’s…” Catra didn’t know what to say about it. She stares at her hand for one minute straight, her voice caught up in her throat. Getting flattered over a messy ink drawing on her palm? Catra doesn’t know if that’s a new low or not. “It’s stupid, Adora.” She looks up. “I love it.”  
  
Adora laughs. “Thanks. I can’t draw.”  
  
“C’mere. Let me do one for you.” She reaches for Adora’s palm and spreads it open, drawing on it carefully. “You know, this is fun. We should draw more often.”  
  
“I guess we can. Bow would love that.” Adora shrugs, staring on the ceiling above them. “You know… I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and—maybe, the reason why we missed this place so much is because not all of the memories we had here were terrible.” She tells her. “After all, I first met you here. Slept with you, trained with you, grew up with you.”  
  
Catra stopped drawing. “You’re—you’re right.” she looks back, to the drawing on their bedframe. “This place… this was our home.”  
  
“Was.” Adora held her shoulder and squeezed it tight. “It _was,_ Catra. It’s not anymore now.” She intertwines her fingers between hers, holding up the hand where the drawing is. “Now, home is wherever I’m with you.”  
  
Catra smiles softly. “Yeah. You’re right. You’re my home.”  
  
“And you’re mine.” She kisses the top of her forehead gently. “I love you.”  
  
“I love you, too.”  
  
“You ready to go home?”  
  
This time, Catra took her hand without any hesitation. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr blog <3](https://hereforthehurts.tumblr.com/)


End file.
